R. Kelly is supposed to go on trial in Chicago on child-sex charges in May, more than five years after a videotape came to light of a figure the police say is the singer performing various sex acts with and on an under-aged girl.

Hitsville, like other commentators, has focused on the big picture: Kelly’s basically been caught red-handed three times having sex with under-aged kids!

But everyone knows all that! In the last exciting weeks before Kelly may finally come to trial, Hitsville is planning to present ongoing installments of R. Kelly SexFacts™, which will fill in interested readers with some of the behind-the-scenes tidits that make this story so compelling and, truth be told, more than a little barfy.Let’s get started!

The R. Kelly case started when Jim DeRogatis, the pop critic at the Chicago Sun-Times,* and Abdon M. Pallasch, the paper’s legal reporter, wrote a 3000-word story detailing the Chicago star’s penchant for young girls. It was published way back in December 2000—the day before a sold-out Christmas concert by the singer at the city’s United Center!

The story detailed the first sex suit against Kelly, including the $250,000 out-of-court settlement that resulted. The pair also talked with a woman who said she’d had sex with Kelly as a 15-year-old, and even had sex with him and another girl. According to the story, Kelly met the girls by hanging out with the choir at his old high school, the scamp! Accusations #s 1 and 2!

A year later, DeRogatis received a phone call telling him to check his mailbox. In it was a videotape showing Kelly having sex with a young girl. The girl’s aunt identified her, and Kelly. In the tape, the singer called her by her first name; she called him “Daddy.” Accusation #3.

After the tapes came to light, Kelly’s lawyer said this: “The fact is there is no tape of R. Kelly having sex. There have been reports in the media of different tapes, and none of them agrees with the other. If someone does say there is a tape out there, those claims are false—absolutely false.”

The lawyer hired San Francisco investigator Jack Palladino to find out who might be trying to smear Kelly’s name by, presumably, making and releasing a fake videotape!

The Chicago Tribune weighed in, too! Kelly was sued for an “indecent sexual relationship” in 2000 and 2001 with an Epic records intern, who was 17 at the time, the paper reported. (The story named the woman and quoted her attorney.) Kelly settled the matter out of court! Accusation #4.

According to the same story, the same lawyer settled a similar lawsuit that charged Kelly with having sex with yet another girl when she was a minor. (She was named as well.) Accusation #5.

A few months later, the original girl’s aunt, an R&B singer named Stephanie Edwards, who records under the name Sparkle and was once Kelly’s protege, confirmed in an LA radio interview that the girl in the video was her niece, who was 14 at the time—and 12 when she met Kelly!

After the interview, the station’s program director said the station’s programmers were debating whether they should stop playing Kelly’s music.

That was all five years ago. The judge in the case noted last week he had held 112 hearings on the case thus far!

. . .

More R. Kelly SexFacts™ are coming soon!

* DeRogatis is an old friend of mine, but I haven’t talked to him about any of this, incidentally. “R. Kelly SexFacts”™ are based entirely on reporting in reputable publications!